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A Few of My Favorite Things #3

A city is only as great as its pubs. The Washington Beer Blog calls Seattle home and we are grateful that we live in a city with so many great pubs. Seattle’s pubs and publicans, you are one of our favorite things.

I’m not going to wax poetic. There’s no time for that. I have too many great pubs and great publicans to talk about. I know that I will probably miss someone. Likely my list will feature some horrific, glaring omissions. It is inevitable when you live in a city with so many great places to drink beer. Please leave a comment and tell me about the great pub and/or publican that I have missed.

The Latona Pub. Photo by Dor and Bob (@dorandbob)

I’m just going to start shouting them out.

Bob Brenlin and his three pubs.The Latona Pub, Fiddler’s Inn, and the Hopvine Pub are three of the best places to find great beer in Seattle. Each of these neighborhood pubs has its own kind of vibe, with each pub fitting perfectly into its respective location. Green Lake, Wedgewood and Capitol Hill are three very different neighborhoods. The constant between all three of Bob Brenlin’s pubs is his dedication to great craft beer. Bob has managed to give three very different Seattle neighborhoods a pub to call their own. The most notable theme between the three is the great beer to which Bob has shown so many years of outstanding dedication. Cheers to you, Bob Brenlin!

Seth Howard and his two pubs. When Seth decided to open Collins Pub on the fringes of Pioneer Square, surely more than one person told him he was crazy. Why would anyone want to build a great beer bar and restaurant in a part of town known primarily for wandering gangs of over-served, barely legal drinkers and staggering, odoriferous transients? Thank God Seth didn’t listen to those people. The Collins Pub is brilliant. They may have called him crazy, but by the time he opened his second location, Hudson New American Public House in Seattle’s Maple Leaf neighborhood, people pretty much just called him a genius. I think that’s appropriate. Cheers to you, Seth Howard!

Photo by Dor and Bob (@dorandbob)

The Beveridge Place Pub.I must admit that the Beveridge Place Pub is my home turf. I cannot visit the Beveridge Place Pub without running into at least one friend. Actually, it’s quite impossible. If you’ve ever been, you don’t need me to tell you about the dedication to great beer. Many of you only make it to the Beveridge Place for stuff like the Barley Wine Bacchanal or the IPA Cask-o-Rama. If you don’t live in West Seattle you may not know what an important role the Bev plays in the community. It is the site of many fundraisers and community meetings, not just a place where people go to drink. It’s a true pub: your living room away from home. Cheers to Gary and Teri, their partners in crime, and everyone who makes the Beveridge Place such an important part of my community.

Cooper’s AlehouseAs a serious old-time Seattle guy, I remember the days when the only place you could get any kind of a selection of decent import and regional craft beer (there wasn’t much local beer back then) was either at a place called Jake O’Shaugnessy’s or a place called Cooper’s Alehouse. That was some 25 years ago and today Jake’s is long gone but Cooper’s lives on. This blog is shamefully aware of how much love we do not show you, my old friend. We promise to change that. Cooper’s Alehouse, you are the original. We love you.

Photo by Dor and Bob (@dorandbob)

The Naked City and the Two Dons.Rewind just a couple of years. You are at the intersection of two major arterials in north Seattle — the corner 85th and Greenwood. There is no good beer to be found without walking many blocks to the north or south. Back then the nearest place to get a good beer was 11 blocks away at 74th and Greenwood (see below). It was a travesty. Fast forward to the present and you’ll find Naked City Brewery and Taphouse. (Yes, it’s an exception that we included a brewery on the list.) This place has been a hit since the day it opened, not only for the excellent beer they brew themselves but also for the rotating tap selection featuring uncommon offerings from other breweries. Cheers to you, Don and Donald. The neighborhood needed you guys so bad.

Seattle’s Neighborhood Alehouses.Jeff Eagan had a vision back in 1991 to bring British style alehouses to Seattle. He teamed up with Jeff Reich and together they opened the 74th Street Alehouse in the Greenwood/Phinney neighborhood. Eventually they expanded to open the Hilltop Alehouse and the Columbia City Alehouse – collectively, Seattle’s Neighborhood Alehouses. To be honest, we don’t frequent any of them as much as we should for the simple reason that the three Alehouses are usually packed whenever we try. That’s a good thing. Whenever we do roll into one of the Alehouses, we are always impressed with the beer selection, the food and the service. These guys have been rocking the local beer scene for a long time. Cheers to you, Jeff and Jeff! And cheers to your three great pubs!

Crap. I knew this was going to be exhausting. I feel like I’ve just gotten started. I need to wrap it up and I’ve omitted more people than I’ve included.

I think that instead of continuing to give out my cudos, I will ask you for yours. Again, my point is that one of the things that makes Seattle such a wonderful city are the great pubs and the great people who run them.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..